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'Dark Souls 2' Trailer And Screenshots

The reveal trailer for Dark Souls 2 gives us a land shrouded in darkness and dragons.

In our last discussion of Dark Souls 2 a number of people took the quote I had posted from Edge and attributed the statement about The Elder Scrolls to From Software. That, so far as I know, was not something anyone at From actually said. Rather, it’s the assumption of Edge itself. Here’s the passage again:

As we find out in issue 249, the answers to these questions are in the hands of game directors new to the Souls series, Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura, who have taken the reins from Hidetaka Miyazaki. Their descriptions of how they intend to mould Dark Souls II into a more approachable form seem reasonable. But Shibuya admits that their approach will be influenced by their individual characters. “I personally am the sort of person who likes to be more direct than subtle,” he tells us. “[Dark Souls II] will be more straightforward and more understandable.” We sympathise if that sort of statement concerns you, but at the same time, we can surely agree that we would all like to see Dark Souls attain as great a presence as The Elder Scrolls. How it gets there is a worthy matter for debate, but it’s certainly a noble task.

For readability’s sake, I put Shibuya’s comments in bold. You’ll note that it was not his assertion that “we can surely agree that we all would like to see Dark Souls attain as great a presence as The Elder Scrolls.”

Coming from a blogger rather than the game designer, this statement is much more palatable obviously.

Anyways, here’s the trailer:

EpicNameBro has a good analysis of the trailer which you should listen to. He shows the scene of the hooded woman looking over the mountains at the towered city in the distance. He then shows a shot of original Dark Souls concept art that is extremely similar, which turns out to be a drawing of Lordran from a distance.

And doesn’t that rope bridge in the screenshot above look a lot like the bridge from the Painted World of Ariamis?

So is this the story of an Undead’s journey to Lordran? Is it a prequel that takes place during the Age of Fire? It certainly seems to be. The dragon in the trailer looks like Kalameet, the black dragon from the Artorias of the Abyss DLC which takes place in an age long before the events in Dark Souls proper.

In terms of everyone’s concerns over the game—I suppose a new gameplay trailer can’t come soon enough. Until we see something more tangible than CGI, there’s just not a whole lot we can know.

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I’m a bit baffled as to why they would want to change the formula of the Souls games…….The reason people love them is because they don’t spoon feed you by making things “straightforward”, they don’t care about making a game “accessible”. The incredible depth and mystery to them is a huge part of the appeal……so why wouldn’t you take the success of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls as proof that Miyazaki should have From Software’s complete faith? Give the guy full rein to do whatever he wants! That’s how i feel about it anyway, I want to play a souls game, not Kingdoms of Alamur.

No, they haven’t necessarily said ‘change the formula’ but clearly changes are planned, so I think it’s reasonable for fans to to be slightly uneasy as to how these changes will manifest themselves.

It’s fair to assume that stating that the game will be more ‘understandable’ and ‘straightforward’ is to appease those who were disdainful of the inscrutability of Dark Souls and From are letting them know that number two will be worth a second look if you didn’t like the previous offering. Obviously they are equally aware that they have a couple of million fans who are very nervous about changes being made that pander to the ‘easy mode please’ crowd(of which there are many judging by what I’ve read) hence ‘intestinal fortitude’ will be required to complete the game.

I have faith that they will produce the goods but I don’t blame fans for adopting a cynical standpoint. The From press release has arguably invited it by hinting at a game that will be all things to all people and we all know that’s not possible.